Jacqueline Druga - Fallout

Slowly she walked to him, almost tauntingly and she stood toe to toe. “You present a façade of knowledge when you only fear the Americans. You are nothing but a sympathizer. We are here. We have them. And soon other countries will be on our side. You fail to see beyond your cowardess and you have spoken your final insult. You, General, have been warned.” Without saying any more, she walked out, leaving Liu alone in the room.

His name was Mason and he was smarter than the average eight-year-old, smaller, too. He had been given a complete set of instructions, but he didn’t know why. He was told he was going to be a hero and that was good enough for him.

“Run,” was the number one rule. “Run as fast as you can.”

Then he was told to take the cupcakes to the foreign soldiers as a thank you. “Run after you give them the treats and go see Mrs. Stewart in the cake shop.”

He did all that. But no sooner did he get to the cake shop, he heard the sound of an explosion.

“It’s a good thing I came here,” he told her. “I could have been out there.”

“Good thing.” She helped him change out of his blue and green stripped shirt, washed his face, then sent him out the back door where his Aunt Trisha waited in a pickup.

“Did you see the boom?” he asked her when he got in.

Aunt Trisha nodded, said nothing, and drove quickly.

He wondered if she was mad.

Mason wanted to talk about the explosion, ask her if she saw it, but she didn’t seem in the mood to talk. They remained quiet for the fifteen-mile drive to the farmhouse. She pulled into the driveway and stopped fast, making Mason snap forward.

“Go in the house,” she instructed.

“But I want to see Uncle—”

“Go.”

“Fine.”

Aunt Trisha stepped from the truck and slammed the door. She moved quickly to the barn. Mason wanted to follow her, but he knew the barn was off limits, so he stayed outside and sulked.

Trisha shoved open the barn doors with a vengeance. Six men including Mason’s uncle surrounded a table with boxes. There were also two trucks in the barn.

“You.” Trish pointed.

A tall, strong-built man turned around. “Hey, sis.”

“Don’t hey sis me,” she barked. “You made our nephew a messenger of death.”

“I did no such thing. He delivered cupcakes.”

“He could have been killed!” she screamed.

“He was fine, we had people watching.”

Trisha growled at him. “When our sister died, we… you and me… vowed to take care of our nephew. To try to give him a life.”

“And what kind of life is he going to lead in this world?”

“He is not a soldier, he is a boy.”

“Everyone is a soldier now,” he said. “He did great, and one day he will hold his head up and be proud he made an impact. Yeah, I’m sorry it was dangerous, but we got them today. They didn’t see it coming. We almost got that Chinese chick that’s running it. Plus, he didn’t get hurt.”

“Is that how you justify it? You did well and he didn’t get hurt? How did this mindset happen to you?”

“I always had it,” he said. “It’s stayed hidden since the service. But when I was in New York and I saw it happen… then the invasion, I knew I had to do my part and bring it out again. Using Mason was… probably wrong, I should have asked you first. I promise you, I won’t use him again. Okay?”

Trisha nodded. “Yes. Where now?”

“We are talking to a resistance outside of Ohio. They’re setting up a coordinated attack. I’ll know soon where we go next. In the meantime, go deal with Mason.” He turned to walk away.

Trisha reached out and grabbed his arm. “All this. Moving every other day, always on the run, always fighting… is it worth it, Sebastian? Is it?”

“Yes. Yes, it is,” Sebastian replied. “More than you realize, this will work. Out there, everywhere, people are doing their part. It’s the only way.”

Adriene Winslet was furious. She was about as close to a temper tantrum as she could possibly be. She didn’t need confirmation or intel to know what had happened at NORAD. It wasn’t the Americans that killed all the soldiers and she immediately placed a call to Petrov.

“You went rouge. How dare you!” she scolded him on the phone.

“They called for help.”

“There was a plan.”

“Yes, there was, but we underestimated the force that remained. They needed help securing the command headquarters.”

“It was not your call. The Canadians are in there, surveying. Right now, the People’s Republic of China has control of the United States and commodities. It has been two weeks since we have received anything. Now with this, it will be even longer.”

“This is nothing,” said Petrov. “If we do not help the Americans counter and counter now, it will be a long time before we see any shipments from the United States. They have a massive fleet and movement toward the US for another invasion. Now is the time.”

“I cannot commit the troops at this time. I have unprecedented discord right now. The troops cannot deploy.”

“I don’t want the troops, I need your resources.”

“You went rogue, Mr. President. That was not part of the plan. I only agreed to help because our military leaders were going to pull a joint effort in coming up with a fool proof…”

“Madam Prime Minister,” Adriene’s aid called her and held up a phone. “President Shu.”

Every corpuscle in her body paused at that moment when she heard the name of the president of China.

“I will call you back,” she said to Petrov. She hung up that call and took the phone from her aide. “This is Prime Minister Winslet.” She paused. “Yes, Mr. President we are aware. I assure you we had nothing to do with this. Our resources are very strained and…” Again, she paused as she listened, as the president of China did no less than back her into a corner.

Harris recognized that navy blue shirt with the green checkered pattern. He saw the man wearing it when they served food. He was envious, not from a fashion standpoint, but rather the man had an extra layer of clothes.

There were other colors mixed in the pile, brown, green, white… but seeing that shirt, the one he knew, told Harris that it wasn’t going to be long before he died.

Something he feared.

He wondered a lot of things. Had they not chased the truck would they have been arrested? What if they stayed in the shelter just one more day? There were a lot of what ifs, but Harris would never know. The truth was he was captured for some reason, arrested for being a war criminal, and penned up like some sort of wild animal.

Each day, each hour that passed, those in the pen became animals. Daily fights broke out, and it didn’t take long for people to go from refusing to eat the garbage they served to fighting over a handful.

No one really messed with Harris, he was a big man. Toby on the other hand wasn’t and Harris did all he could to protect him. Even though Toby boasted he could take care of himself. His face was still swollen beyond recognition over the pummeling he had taken.

In fact, protecting Toby for the evening was how he saw the shirt.

Everyone searched for a spot to sleep, to eat their measly rations, go to the bathroom. Harris found a far-off corner of the yard. Where a concrete barricade had been erected with barbed wire to stop anyone from going behind the prison to the remaining yard.

He made a spot for him and Toby but soon realized why no one took that spot.